Pirates Look Much More Like the Pirates, Reds 3-1

Featured in picture form is Pirates' shortstop Chase d'Arnaud, who was nice enough to give the Reds a couple of free runs. Leading off the game, Monsieur d'Arnaud fielded Heisey's grounder to short and opted to award him second base, as opposed to recording the out, by throwing wildly. Dusty, as Dustys are wont to do, bunted Heisey to 3rd and Votto drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left. In the 5th, after both the Reds and Pirates had added a run, Monsieur d'Arnaud thought that Johnny Cueto might enjoy running the bases. So, he booted his grounded. Heisey and Renteria singled, bringing home the third and final run of the game.

Lost in d'Arnaud's gross incompetence is the fine game thrown by Johnny Cueto. I'm going to have to stop mentioning it because just about every game this season from Cueto has thrown very well. His ERA crept down a little more to 1.98 and he picked up his sixth win of the year. The bullpen was good, Bray, Ondrusek, Chapman and Cordero, all did their jobs. The offense featured a two hit/two walk day by Bruce. Phillips got a day off to think about how bad he's been with the bat lately. Rolen reemerged from his hyperbaric chamber, it was treating his inflammatory bowel disease, to hit the ball hard four times, though only one resulted in a base hit. That's a sign of improvement. Some hits from the third base position would seem to help out the offense.

Team gets the day off today before starting a 10 game homestand. That should be pretty sweet. Braves are rumored to be interested in Jonny Gomes' haircut, so they get a first hand opportunity to check him out. The Reds Rocket, despite Gomes unpredictability, would be sad to see him go. But, that's the nature of the business, regardless of how nice you look in a sombrero. Reds! Reds! Reds!